India gets off to a flying start as batters post 410/7 on day one
India’s tactical decision to bring in debutant Shubha gives the side four lefthanders and the luxury of consistently fielding a leftright combination in the middle, which nullified anything England could do with the early bounce on offer
Clean slates are a blessing. Ask Shubha Satheesh. The Karnataka batter, with no prior international experience, was the cynosure of all eyes with her classical batting and bravado, helping India to 410/7 on the opening day of the oneoff Test against England at the D.Y. Patil Stadium here on Thursday.
While Shafali Verma looked the more nervy of the two, Smriti Mandhana fell first, to a delivery from Lauren Bell that left her with no room and rocked back to rearrange the stumps. Shafali fell soon after, clean bowled by Kate Cross whose topofoff line breached Shafali’s defence and sent the off stump cartwheeling.
Shubha, who made a solid 76ball 69, got off the mark in her second delivery in international cricket, driving Bell to the boundary with a textbook cover drive for the ages. She teamed up with Jemimah Rodrigues, who also made her Test debut in this fixture, to stitch a valuable 115run stand in 146 balls for the third wicket.
In the 11th over, she got down on one knee to drive a fuller ball past bowler Kate Cross, holding the pose for the photographers to get the perfect shot.
She got to her maiden half century off the same bowler with a similar fullfaced drive down the ground. Jemimah, who registered a maiden fifty herself, kept the runs trickling in at a healthy rate, with impeccable timing and placement especially through the offside. Shubha fell to Sophie Ecclestone after misjudging the bounce on a shorter delivery. Bell took out Jemimah soon after.
Skipper Harmanpreet Kaur and Yastika Bhatia steadied the ship with a 116run stand for the fifth wicket.
A freak run out saw Harmanpreet’s bat seemingly getting stuck on the pitch as she tried to ground it to safety, with her innings ending at 49. Yastika was dropped on 15 when Bell squandered a sitter after getting both hands to it.
She went on to score an 88ball 66.
Sneh Rana and Deepti Sharma stitched India’s third century stand for the day.
Knight’s decision to take the new ball did not help as Deepti romped to her third Test fifty in three matches. Sneh’s defiant watch ended after she was bowled by Nat SciverBrunt in the dying minutes of the day.
England was porous on the field. The pitch initially aided seam movement but eased out after lunch
DIndia — 1st innings: Smriti Mandhana b Bell 17 (12b, 3x4), Shafali Verma b Cross 19 (30b,
Shubha Satheesh c SciverBrunt b Ecclestone 69
(76b, 13x4), Jemimah Rodrigues b Bell 68 (99b, 11x4), Harmanpreet Kaur run out 49 (81b, 6x4), Yastika Bhatia c Bell b Dean 66 (88b, 10x4, 1x6), Deepti Sharma (batting) 60 (95b, 9x4, Sneh Rana b SciverBrunt 30
Pooja Vastrakar (batting) 4 (12b, 1x4); Extras
(b19, lb7, nb2): 28; Total (for seven wkts. in 94 overs): 410.
Fall of wickets: 125 (Smriti, 5.1 overs), 247 (Shafali, 8.4), 3162 (Shubha, 32.6), 4190 (Jemimah, 37.6), 5306 (Harmanpreet, 62.1), 6313 (Yastika, 66.2), 7405 (Sneh, 90.5).
England bowling: Cross 140641, Bell 151642, SciverBrunt 114251, Filer 151840, Dean 171621, Ecclestone 224851.
Toss: India.
against all expectations. That said, India’s tactical decision to bring in Shubha gave the side four left handers and the luxury of consistently fielding a leftright combination in the middle, which nullified anything Ecclestone in particular could do with the early bounce on offer.
In 2014, the last home Test India played, the side batted just once, amassed a 400 score and did not need to pad up again. Harmanpreet and Co. won’t mind an encore.